🔗 Share this article Meet this Sunday Division Squad With 1,800 Premier League Matches The substitutes for the team Veterans during a 6-2 triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey How do you enhance a outstanding experienced side that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches? Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you pursue additional silverware. A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster. 222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps The team Vets Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division. Their lineup this campaign boasts nine former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances. This elite team also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances. The squad include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012. He had his first appearance for the team in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick. Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123 million. Household Names and Global Players He won six Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 goals Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in. Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip. He played for Everton between 2016 and 2020 "My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse. "Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me! "If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose? "Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course." So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back. "It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said. "I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable." Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe Dreamlike' Feeling Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker. Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19. Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was. He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League games. "The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player. "I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English caps. "Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough. "We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home. "They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal fellas. "Now we can't wait for the return fixture." We Will Still Win the League' Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire. "Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a